Siaka Stevens

Siaka Stevens (24 August 1905-29 May 1988) was head of state of Sierra Leone from 26 April 1968 to 28 November 1985, succeeding Albert Margai and preceding Joseph Saidu Momoh, girst as Prime Minister from 1968 to 1971 and then as President from 1971 to 1988. He oversaw Sierra Leone's transition to a republic, but he reigned as a military dictator until his resignation in 1985.

Biography
Siaka Stevens born on 24 August 1905 in Moyamba, Sierra Leone to a Limba father and Mende mother. He served in the colonial army of Sierra Leone under the United Kingdom and co-founded the Sierra Leone People's Party in 1951 with Milton Margai. Stevens later broke with the SLPP and exploited ethnic tensions in the country to form the All People's Congress party, and in 1968 he led a military coup against Albert Margai's government. Stevens became the new military dictator of the country, and in 1971 he declared that Sierra Leone was now a republic and no longer a colonial government. He had general John Amadu Bangura executed to remove the military from control of the government, and he remained in power until he retired in 1985. He died in 1988.